Spoofing spiffing affair

Current world spoofing champion Charlie Rattray, of
Christchurch, former world champion Mike Bank, of
Wellington, Queenstown spoof president Murray Cockburn and
2011 champion Brett Annan. Photo by Olivia Caldwell.

On Friday night, I was given an assignment with a twist
when I attended the Queenstown Spoofing Championships.

It being Friday, I was intending on walking into Skycity
Casino, getting my photograph, a general knowledge of the
game and leaving pretty early on.

As it turned out, I thoroughly enjoyed my two hours of what
spoofers would say was a privileged evening because the No 1
rule of spoofing is ''no women allowed''.

For those not in the know, spoofing involves groups of
players around a table - each with three coins of equal size.
Players must present a closed fist containing anything from
nothing at all to three coins, and in each round the
objective is for players to guess the aggregate number of
coins being concealed. The player who guesses the correct
amount moves out of the round and gains the most points.

Simple, eh?

I thought so too until I watched with bated breath how these
men think long and hard before guessing, some even bluffing
their way through the game to throw off opponents!

One of the contestants described the gathering to me as ''a
gentleman's club'', but I cottoned on to this game pretty
quickly and reckon the only reason women aren't invited is
because we'd win more than our fair share of the games.

Current world champion Charlie Rattray, of Christchurch, told
me the men's wives didn't really understand why they spent
hours playing the game.

''Is there more than luck to it? I'm not sure yet. It is the
sheer ridiculous, diverse and upside-down sort of sensation
to it,'' Mr Rattray said.

The game involves a fair amount of drinking, and if the
non-gloating rule is broken, that competitor must buy a
$70-plus bottle of port for the table.

Legend has it former All Black Murray Mexted won two world
cups in a row and afterwards said the only reason he
triumphed was because he stayed sober.

''It's cheating, really,'' Mr Rattray said.

The game has rugby connections and world cup players gain a
jacket which displays the colours of each rugby test-playing
nation.

Queenstown's own Mark Dickson beat Australian Stan Gyles in
the final to win Friday's championship.

Seeing as gloating isn't allowed, Mr Dickson was not
approached for comment.